Should text polls be banned? Text your answer to 53033...

BarneyMagee

Do theses text polls annoy anyone else.

I'm sure they have been spoken about before but they seem to be the most pointless time fillers on news, lifestyle and sports programs.

Text comments are good and you get good entertainment out of them but the questions they ask in polls just really annoys me.

Along the lines of

Is murder wrong?
Are we too lenient on paedophiles?
Should more be done to protect the elderly?
Is the Government doing enough to cut hospital waiting lists?
Text Y for yes and N for no.

What type of answer to they expect.

TV3 and some of the radio stations seem to be particularly bad at them.

flogen

Not time fillers, money spinners.

I wouldn't like to see them banned, I'd just recommend that anyone (or any outlet) who uses their results as proof of something, a news story or justification for an editorial line be ignored or at least treated with scepticism.

I don't confine that to text polls either (although they tend to be the worst), no poll with a single simple and vague question can gague public opinion in any reliable way.

DMC

Should we have a poll to enhance discussion of this topic?










Only kidding!

mike65

Indeedy!

Its fairly depressing as use of polls is essentially lowest common dominator stuff.

Mike.

Tom Dunne

mike65 wrote:

Its fairly depressing as use of polls is essentially lowest common dominator stuff

And I think it ties in with my other thread about emotive language in reports - get 'em riled up and let them have their say. I would imagine it is those whom the tabloid reporting is aimed at would vote in such polls.

Taking candy from a child, and all that.

spank_inferno

Its good for revenue, Most of the text costs go to the network provider then some to the provider of the shortcode 5xxxx (often one of the networks too).
And then some goes to the channell.

Its tolerable on commercial channels as they do have to make a profit or they dont exist. It gets my goat when I see it on RTE. As well as having the most revenue from advertising its also funded by the taxpayer.
Its not right asking the public to pay even more for facile "does my bum look big in this" polls/votes

just had an idea... if freephone exists, what about free-text?

ressem

The first time I was really repelled by sky news was when I saw them start a text poll, show the results, then run an utterly one sided, factually dubious report on the half hour, along with the results being pushed in that direction.

Rather than news, it felt more like a sociology experiment, or political marketing demonstration. Since then have only viewed the channel when outside the home.

Freetext is possible (shortcode 50xxx), but as with freephone, it's up to the company running it to pay the charges in lieu of the customer. No way the public broadcaster should be doing that for trivia.

egan007

No they should not be banned....

How far do you have to go to protect idiots from themselves.
They should put the minimun charge to 10Euro per text.
Tax idiots....

flogen

ressem wrote:

The first time I was really repelled by sky news was when I saw them start a text poll, show the results, then run an utterly one sided, factually dubious report on the half hour, along with the results being pushed in that direction.

Rather than news, it felt more like a sociology experiment, or political marketing demonstration. Since then have only viewed the channel when outside the home.

It is a great bit of market research, that's for sure... you can figure what way your audience lean (and getting them to pay for the privilage of telling you) and cater for the majority of viewers afterwards.
It is indeed linked to the other thread on emotional language in that sense; but just like how certain news channels slant news to suit their (publisher's) agenda, they can also slant the question* or even falsify the answers to get what they want out of polls

*Just an off-the-top of my head example; let's say someone is charged with murder after they kill someone who had broken into their home... if the channel/paper wants to go with the accused, they could say 'should people be allowed to protect their property by any means necissary?', and if they were against the accused they could say 'Should you be allowed to murder people on your property without your permission?' or something like that

Firetrap

Does anybody really take note of text polls. And do they remember the outcome a few hours later? The only way to kill off text polls is to not vote in them. Hopefully some day the masses will see sense.

Last year, a local radio station in the midlands had a text poll, asking if listeners thought decentralisation was still a good idea. To cut a long story short, it turns out that staff working for Tom Parlon all voted in the poll, distorting the final result. Proof, if it were ever needed that...

i) Text polls are rubbish
ii) Tom Parlon and his staff are muppets
iii) It's not a bright idea to take part in text polls if the local radio station already has your mobile number and can trace you